SERIOUS TRAINING, Part 6

Performance Limiters

In last week’s SERIOUS TRAINING, Part 5 post, I shared two pillars of my training philosophy: balanced training and purposeful intensity. While perhaps not earth-shaking, they are foundational; a coach’s philosophy eventually dictates the athlete’s training plan. I once tested this by asking ChatGPT to create a plan for a fictitious athlete using the ‘Joe Friel training philosophy.’ In seconds, it produced a plan that was remarkably accurate. I suspect this success was due to the AI scanning my books, articles, and podcasts. While I would still tweak a few things as my methods do evolve, my core philosophy remains constant.

This week, I want to explore one more pillar of my philosophy. While I adhere to several principles, these are the ‘Big 3’—the concepts always at the forefront of my mind when coaching. My other principles primarily focus on the coach-athlete relationship, such as the athlete is the boss, teaching self-coaching, keeping it simple, and prioritizing health and well-being. There are also a few outliers that sit between methodology and philosophy, most notably: that which is measured improves. I’ll revisit that topic soon, but for now, let’s dive into the third core principle: performance limiters.